Save the UC Berkeley Libraries
Since last year, there has been a concerted effort by University of California Berkeley (Cal) administrators to close three libraries due to budgetary issues. The anthropology and physics-astronomy libraries are scheduled to close by August 2024, and the mathematics library by August 2025. There will also be reduced services at other libraries. The administration claims that the libraries are too costly to run. They have outlined a long term plan in which Cal’s library system will move to a “layered system of spaces and services” consisting of hub libraries, satellite libraries and by appointment libraries. The library system has 40% fewer employees than it had 20 years ago, while Cal has 12,000 more students paying significantly more tuition.
Some students and faculty have taken it upon themselves to resist the closures. They have been occupying the libraries for weeks. Earlier in the semester, they held a two-day occupation of the anthropology library where they held teach-ins, gathered and camped out. In recent weeks as Chancellor Christ and Jeffrey Mackie-Mason, the head of libraries, have doubled down on the closures, the occupation has reignited. Presently, the anthropology library is being used by the students in a communal way much like the traditional libraries and learning centers have been used throughout history. There are opportunities for dialogue, watching movies and instruction. In addition, the community is strengthening as they share food and occupy the grounds overnight in their sleeping bags. The students have reclaimed this space to find and create community, something that has significantly eroded since the Covid pandemic.
Jonah Gottlieb, a history major studying social movements who has slept in the library during the occupation, feels strongly that the occupation of the libraries is yet another example of resistance at Cal. He draws parallels to the free speech movement’s occupation of public spaces on campus to create community and solidarity, upholding what a public education and a higher learning institution should be about. He wonders, “Can we go beyond just going to school, getting a degree and getting a job in a field of specialty to learning in a public institution for the benefit of society and centering people first?” He believes this decision by the administration is political.
The occupying students have a monumental task first and foremost to save the libraries for the students who need to have public community gathering and learning spaces. Additionally, many students like Jonah want the UC system to look deeper into the austerity mindset that has taken hold of our public education system. Fifty years ago, Governor Reagan initiated the massive defunding of our higher learning institutions at the state level.
The students have met with both Chancellor Christ and Mackie-Mason who acknowledge the students right to protest, yet will not back down from shuttering the libraries. They claim this move will save the system $1.5 million. Jonah asks, “How can the university spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new data science building and give huge raises to administrators but not have funding for a few small libraries?”
The students invite the greater community to support their ongoing occupation. Join the protesters at the anthropology library — on the second floor of the anthropology and arts practice building — near the corner of Bancroft and College. Bring food or donate to the food fund at givebutter.com/saveanthrolibrary. Let’s keep the library protesters thriving!
This article was first published in the Berkeley Times on May 11, 2023.
